SHANGHAI | China's Commerce Ministry said Thursday an investigation showed U.S. and Russian exporters were dumping steel used for power generation and ordered that importers pay deposits to compensate.
As of last Friday, importers of flat-rolled electrical steel, a product used in the power industry, sold by U.S. companies will have to pay dumping margins of 10.7 percent to 25 percent, the ministry said in a statement on its Web site.
Importing the steel from Russian companies will incur similar subsidies of 4.6 percent to 25 percent, it said.
The deposits will be imposed pending final results of the investigation, which are also in retaliation for U.S. subsidies for steel companies, it said.
"The domestic steel industry has suffered substantial damage," the ministry said, emphasizing the measures were consistent with World Trade Organization rules.
China has lashed out at similar probes of its own exporters, saying such moves are protectionism.
The U.S. Commerce Department has imposed duties of up to 99 percent on imports of Chinese-made steel pipe used in the oil and gas industry. China says the U.S. side used the wrong formula to calculate the cost of goods, and the duties it imposed were too high.
The disputes are among a series between Beijing and Washington, which also include conflicts over access to each others' markets for tires, music and movies.
Steel analyst Michelle Applebaum said in her Steel Market Intelligence report the amount of product involved in the trade suit "is truly trivial," because it is less than a tenth of a percent of the Chinese market. Applebaum said the case is an effort to "stem a surging tide of Western complaints about China's high cost and subsidized steel industry's exports."
November steel exports from China rose to their highest level in 2009 to about 3.2 million short tons, up from about 3 million short tons a month earlier. Applebaum said these production levels have prompted steel producers to seek more export opportunities.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
